Cover Stories: Musical memoirs, Paul Burrell

Publishers, perhaps encouraged by the success of Ashley Kahn's study of Miles Davis and Kind of Blue (Granta) are getting a tad more daring with musical memoirs. Oxford have signed up a biography of legendary gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt, who, with Stephane Grappelli, was part of the Quintet of the Hot Club of France. Famously, he had less than a full complement of fingers (after a caravan fire): the handicap accounted for his distinctive style. The author, Michael Dregni, is himself a gypsy jazz guitarist.

* Whether Paul Burrell's tips on the correct way to eat a boiled egg carry quite the same weight these days remains to be seen. But while publishers wait anxiously to see if Diana's "rock'' will tell all between hard covers, Carlton is reissuing the ex-butler's Entertaining with Style in its Deutsch imprint, in time for the Christmas party season.

* On 12 October, this column stated that Alistair Cooke had demanded $500,000 for rights to his 1973 book America, and received $400,000. However, Mr Cooke informs us that he has always refused advances for his books. A bidding war for America took place because a rival company to his normal publisher, Knopf, claimed prior rights and insisted on one. It was conducted without his knowledge, and led to a payment by Knopf of $350,000. Alistair Cooke explains that none of this money reached him, and that his royalty had been contractually set at $50,000. We are happy to make this clarification.